Nationally, UCF had the fourth-highest student-faculty ratio of all public universities in fall 2010, the most recent period for which data were available from the National Center for Education Statistics.

By comparison, the national average was 18-to-1.

University administrators, however, argue there are lots of benefits to being big.

UCF offers more than 200 majors. Its research programs have attracted national recognition and top-notch faculty.

And as the university has expanded during its nearly 50 years, so has its impact on the Orlando area economy, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to Central Florida each year while spurring new growth in Lake Nona's Medical City with its College of Medicine.

Some members of the Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System, have expressed concern about UCF's growth. And the system's chancellor, Frank Brogan, said he has had "good discussions" with UCF President John Hitt on the issue.

But Hitt and his administration stand by their mission: to ensure that a wide variety of students have access to higher education.

It's a mission they embrace at a time when state and national lawmakers are pushing for more college graduates, especially in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"We don't grow simply for the sake of growing — we grow to meet that goal," said Hitt's second-in-command, Provost Tony Waldrop.

UCF is producing more graduates, too. From 2005-06 to 2010-11, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded went up 32 percent while the number of students earning graduate degrees jumped 25 percent, according to UCF. The school expects to give out 12,200 bachelor's degrees this school year.

Critics, however, aren't convinced that volume is necessarily a strong indication of quality.

Robert Schwartz, a scholar at Florida State University who specializes in higher education, likened large public universities such as UCF to Walmart.

Prestigious schools such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford can stay small and take in only the brightest students, he said, because they are private institutions with huge endowments.

UCF and other public universities, however, must respond to the demands of taxpayers and lawmakers, who often see size as a more efficient use of public money.

"Like Walmart, the more the better becomes a key issue," Schwartz said. "So UCF is fulfilling a business plan that more is better, and 60,000 students is viewed positively from that perspective."

Smith, the finance professor, said UCF is more like a cereal company selling the same product but putting less and less in the box.

When he started at UCF 16 years ago, Smith points out, he had about 40 to 45 students in each of his classes. In recent years, that has grown to 60 to 75 students.

The average undergraduate class size at UCF grew from 44 students to 51 from 2007 to 2011, according to the university.

Smith worries larger classes mean students will not develop skills needed for the workplace. He used to require students to do an extensive individual project and present it in class — an assignment meant to mimic the kind of situation students might encounter working for a bank or large company.

Today, Smith requires a simpler project and has ditched the presentations because they would eat into too much instructional time.

Elsewhere at the university, faculty members described how individual projects have been replaced by group work. Multiple-choice tests are more popular these days because they take much less time to grade than essays and other exams requiring written answers.

UCF psychology professor Charles Negy said he's trying to make the best of the situation. In this semester's general-psychology course, he's teaching an auditorium of 448 students. His cross-cultural psychology class has 310 students

But Negy, known for his high energy, said he likes large classes. He runs them much like a TV-talk-show host as he moves throughout the room, interacting with students.